Rewriting No Child Left Behind has proven to be almost impossible for Congressional Democrats and Republicans. But on Wednesday evening, the House barely passed a new education bill that will allow “portability.”
According to StarTribune.com, the latest rewrite passed by the House “gives states and local school districts more control over assessing the performance of schools, teachers and their students. It also prohibits the federal government from requiring or encouraging specific sets of academic standards, such as Common Core, and allows federal money to follow low-income children to public schools of their choice, an issue known as portability.”
That’s a handful but at least it’s a start.
No Child Left Behind expired in 2007 and has yet to be renewed. So the House taking a step towards reconciling a belabored process that has taken nearly nine years at least looks good on the surface.
The issue that the bill may face in the Senate, or at least moving forward, is that some details of the legislation breaks along party lines.
For instance, the Star Tribune’s article reports that the Senate “rejected a proposal to turn federal aid for poor students over to the states, which could then let parents choose to spend money in the public or private school the deem best for their child.”
That obviously will not go over well with Democrats.
In the end, though, starting a process of broaching the topic of fixing No Child Left Behind seems to be a well strategy. Passing a bill that works is a totally different issue.
